The Way Home Adoption is thrilled to announce that we’re going to be adopted! Starting in mid-2024, reconnection services like ours will now be offered as part of the Department of Family and Protective Services, funded through the State of Texas.

The Way Home Adoption opened nearly 10 years ago to focus solely on foster children ages 11–17, who are difficult to place in forever homes because of their age.

We’ve provided adoption recruitment and matching services focused on older youth, primarily through previous healthy relationships. Many have referred to us as “the cold case unit” of youth in foster care. 

We have always believed that it’s never too late to find forever.

We have always believed in adoption.

Since we began, our vision has remained constant. We have dreamed of serving every child aged 11–17 in Houston. Our main hurdle to this vision was funding, as our program was time-consuming and tedious. It required (wo)man-power to go through a child’s CPS case file – many times after they’ve been in care for over a decade – to try to identify any positive past relationships or community connections that could lead to permanency.  

When we started, 511 kids ages 11–17 in the Houston area were waiting for a forever family. Now, there’s half that (268 kids in 2022), making it possible for CPS to allocate enough funds for a program that we have shown is statistically proven to work in our city. Our permanency success rate is nearly 50%, double that of adoption rates for this age group using traditional adoption methods! This is higher than any of us could have predicted. Our program has served as a proof-of-concept to ensure that a government-funded program would succeed.

We’ve often joked that we work tirelessly to “put ourselves out of a job” by having every child served. What a dream that would be! We are thrilled to announce that our dream is now a reality.

Every child will now have the chance to receive these services!

We know it’s rare to create a nonprofit whose services have the opportunity to be state-funded. We are so grateful for this, and so 
much more.

We were just naive colleagues with bleeding hearts when we first dreamed of this nonprofit. What made this become a reality was a community that believed in us, this program, and our kids. And with brilliant staff, selfless volunteers, families who opened their homes, kids who were resilient, and generous supporters who made it possible – we learned (through some trial and error) that it could work. We learned that it IS possible to find forever homes for youth in foster care. We learned that it’s never too late.

Your support thus far means we can fiscally continue this work of transition without needing any more financial public support.

We are in awe of your generosity. Thank you for carrying us to the finish line.

While we have spent most of our nights dreaming of getting youth adopted, it’s a true honor to announce OUR future program adoption. While we may no longer know these kids personally and will no longer be running an organization dedicated to finding youth homes, our hope is that our city will continue to be changed as much as we have been.

And it couldn’t have happened without you – our community. Our mentors, our Board Members 
(past and present!), donors, volunteers, friends, and family.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

–Ashley Fields, Kendall Pace Monroe, and the Team at TWHA